On the evening of Thursday 26th June the diocese held a farewell Eucharist for Arthur, our 'retiring' archdeacon, in Lincoln Cathedral. Many tributes were paid and both Arthur and Melanie were thanked for their faithful service to the diocese. Expectations as to how, at least in part, he would spend his retirement were fueled by a gift of a robot golf caddy, which narrowly avoided catastrophe as Melanie tried it out!
Below is the text of the sermon Arthur preached at that service.
Thursday 26th June at 7pm
Cathedral
Farewell Eucharist
In 1970 I had been a priest for a only a few months. On this particular Sunday evening I was waiting in the procession behind the readers and the choir and in front of the vicar – my training incumbent. There was still a minute or two before the first hymn was announced and I turned and asked him what his text was for the sermon. He replied “You are preaching, not me”. My anxiety levels rose rapidly and I said “But what am I going to say?” He replied “Tell them about God”.
Tonight’s Eucharist was originally planned as the occasion for the clergy to renew their vows. However, it was later decided to switch it to the clergy conference in April, not least because almost all the clergy would be in one place at the same time. It had been my intention tonight to think about the spirituality of priests and deacons, bishops and archdeacons. For some time now I have been involved in training new archdeacons and latterly have been given the responsibility for spirituality. It is my firm conviction that the spirituality of an archdeacon is that of a deacon. In other words it is a spirituality which speaks of service, waiting, management of tables, and a readiness to stay in the background.
The spirituality of bishops, on the other hand is very different and its roots are in the spirituality of priesthood where the focus is on oversight, presidency and living and preaching the gospel in the world. Realising that the focus of tonight’s service had changed, I asked my colleagues what I should preach about. My fellow Archdeacon helpfully said “Tell them about God”.
I have always thought that ever since Christianity has been the established religion in the west beginning with the Emperor Constantine, each historical period and particularly the role of the monarch has greatly influenced how God has been understood. Briefly and in summary, in Constantine’s time, God was emperor. Under Charlemagne, God was both Holy Roman Emperor and king and in the later Middle Ages – the period of the barons, God becomes an all powerful baron. With the age of enlightenment, God is understood as the creator of human talent in art, science and philosophy.
The remote and uninterested God of the Deists provided a perfect backdrop for Charles Darwin to develop his theory of the origin of the species. The balance was not to be redressed until the 19th century with the emergence of both the Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical revivals. Today our own monarch has a highly developed sense of duty and sees her role very much as that of a servant. Similarly, service is how we speak of God today and how we describe the work of the church – a servant church. Our own society, however, is different in two ways from the preceding two thousand years of history and how we speak about and understand God. The first is that we live in a secular society which means religion no longer occupies the centre ground. Secondly we live in a multi-cultural and multi-faith society. The one word ‘spirituality’ is used now to incorporate those who belong to the different faith communities and those who belong to none.
The question for us is “What is a distinctive Christian spirituality?” As one commentator puts it “The human heart is restless, and our restlessness will not be assuaged until we feel that we have gained some insight into the meaning of our existence and discovered some way of expressing this understanding in our daily lives – until we have found a spiritual home.”
After retiring I will continue as a member and vice-chairman of the National Forum for Spirituality and Mental Health. It brings together all nine of the major faiths and the Humanists. Its chairman is from the Jewish faith and treasurer from the Muslim faith. It began as a result of 9/11 when there were and continue to be fears for Muslims living in the west and most particularly for their mental health. The single most important lesson that I have learnt since the Forum began is that people from the other world faiths know what they believe. What they demand of Christians is that we state unequivocally what we believe. What then, I ask again, is the distinctive mark of Christian spirituality? Surely it is the uniqueness of the incarnation. There is no other world religion whose God has shared in our human experience in the way we believe God does in the person of Jesus Christ. Incarnation means identifying with the down-trodden, the poor, the marginalised, those whose inner lives are blighted by mental health problems, those assailed by a range of disabilities and those who live their lives on the edge of society. In other words, it means serving those who live where Jesus lived. When we recall that the saviour of this world was given a feeding trough for a cradle, died on a cross where the city tipped its rubbish and was buried in a borrowed grave, incarnation is about entering fully into the human condition – its pain and bleakness, its tragedy and sin, its joy and celebration, and its hope and glory.
We are called to be people who live in the depth of the Holy Spirit and this means endeavouring to be continually aware of the presence of God through the power of the spirit at work in our daily lives. What I am really talking about is a culture of prayer. Yes, we are to be a servant church, to preach a gospel of forgiveness and to worship a God of love, but day by day we are to live our lives in a milieu of prayer. We can only do this if we are open to the spirit. I think of this as being in touch with the spirit of God and developing antennae which will reach out to the needs of other people. I remember calling on a churchwarden’s wife at the very moment when she was experiencing the first of many panic attacks.. I recall also telephoning a friend and, unbeknown to me, he was in the depths of despair. These examples happen far too often for them to be mere coincidence; rather it is the spirit of God at work in our daily lives. We are then to take the world seriously and to promote a life of prayer, a distinctive spirituality and to encourage each on their pilgrim journey towards the heart of God. My definition of a pilgrim is one who is searching for holiness and seeking to discover their own spirituality. Think of the thousands of people who visit this wonderful building and light a candle at St Hugh’s tomb and say a prayer and capture a moment of silence. They are not visitors; they are pilgrims searching for holiness.
Monasteries are centres of holiness and Monasticism has a significant history in this diocese because it was the only English Diocese to nurture a religious order – the Gilbertines. In Tudor times there were more religious houses in this diocese than any other in England. The Lincoln Uprising was a direct result of the dissolution of the monasteries. Soon our own Precentor will be clothing a novice at Remstone in nearby Nottinghamshire where he is the warden. This is the second novice he will clothe in twelve months. How wonderful it would be if he, or Bishop John, were clothing a novice in a religious order here. If we in the diocese are to continue to do the work of God and if we are to live our lives in the milieu of prayer, I hope that it might be possible to offer hospitality to a group of religious who might be looking for a new home. The benefit from having a religious order is the support that could be given to promote a life of prayer, define a Christian spirituality and enrich the life of the church in the diocese.
Post 2008 will mean something very different for you than it will for Melanie and me!! As we take our leave of you, we say thank you to you all, keep in touch and may God bless you and be with you now and forever. Amen.